Monday, March 16, 2009

The Netherlands - The Peace Palace in The Hague (NL-143081)

This beautiful card shows The Peace Palace in The Hague. I love this kind of Dutch cards, I have similar one from Rotterdam (I just haven't posted it yet, as I usually post the cards that I receive now and I'm a bit late with posting the cards that I received from my penpals several years ago). This palace seems to be built in neogothic style. I like some neogothic buildings, for example churches, palaces, the railway station in my city... But, there are also some schools and hospitals built in this style and they seem very scary at the first sight :) I've been learning at such school (built in neogothic style about 1900) and I couldn't get used to it for several months. But, in my opinion, this palace is an example of really good architecture.

NL-143081

The Peace Palace ("Vredespaleis" in Dutch), situated in The Hague, Netherlands, is often called the seat of international law because it houses the International Court of Justice (which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations), the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague Academy of International Law, and the extensive Peace Palace Library.

In addition to hosting these institutions, the Palace is also a regular venue for special events in international policy and law.

The idea of the Palace started from a discussion in 1900 between the Russian diplomat Friedrich Martens and the American diplomat Andrew White, over providing a home for the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which was established through the first Hague Peace Conference in 1899. White contacted his friend and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie about this idea. Carnegie had his reservations, and at first was only interested in donating money for the establishment of a Library of International Law. White however was able to convince Carnegie, and in 1903 Carnegie agreed to donating 1.5 million dollars needed for a Peace Temple that would house the PCA as well as to endow it with a library of international law.

2 comments:

Yes, I appreciate it very much, when people care to find nice stamps :) But I know it may be a bit hard, because sometimes the ladies at post office look at me in a strange way, when I ask for unusual stamps :))